EchoPark 250

The EchoPark 250[1] is a NASCAR Xfinity Series stock car race held at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, a few miles south of Atlanta. This race has long served as Atlanta's lone Busch/Nationwide Series date, and has been shuffled around the schedule several times. From its inception until 2001 the race was run as part of Atlanta's spring Winston Cup race weekend, as the then-Busch Series ended its season at a different track than the then-Winston Cup series.

This article is about the race formerly called the Aaron's 312 held at Atlanta. For the race called the Aaron's 312 held at Talladega, see MoneyLion 300.
EchoPark 250
NASCAR Xfinity Series
VenueAtlanta Motor Speedway
LocationHampton, Georgia, United States
Corporate sponsorEchoPark Automotive
First race1992
Distance251.02 miles (403.98 km)
Laps163
Stages 1/2: 40 each
Final stage: 83
Previous namesAtlanta 300 (1992)
Slick 50 300 (1993)
Busch Light 300 (1994–1996)
Stihl Outdoor Power Tools 300 (1997)
Stihl 300 (1998)
Yellow Freight 300 (1999)
Aaron's 312 (2000–2005)
Nicorette 300 (2006–2008)
Degree Men V12 300 (2009)
Great Clips 300 (2010–2011)
NRA American Warrior 300 (2012)
Great Clips / Grit Chips 300 (2013)
Great Clips 300 benefiting Feed the Children (2014)
Hisense 250 (2015)
Heads Up Georgia 250 (2016)
Rinnai 250 (2017–2019)
Most wins (driver)Kevin Harvick (5)
Most wins (team)Roush Fenway Racing (7)
Most wins (manufacturer)Chevrolet (16)
Circuit information
SurfaceAsphalt
Length1.54 mi (2.48 km)
Turns4

Following the transfer of the season ending Cup series race from Atlanta to Homestead-Miami Speedway after the 2001 season (although due to extenuating circumstances the 2001 Atlanta fall race was not the final race of the season), the then 312-mile race was moved to Atlanta's fall race weekend where it remained until Aaron's Rental, who was sponsoring the race, chose instead to sponsor the lone Busch event at Talladega. The race gained sponsorship from GlaxoSmithKline through its Nicorette brand[2][3] and moved back to its traditional spring date.

In September 2008, NASCAR officials announced that Nicorette would not renew its corporate sponsorship for race after the 2008 season. On October 26, 2008 it was announced that Unilever's deodorant brand Degree will take over sponsorship of this race starting in 2009. It was later announced that the now-Degree V12 300 would be moving to September as part of the latest round of NASCAR realignment, which resulted in the Pep Boys Auto 500, the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega, and the Pepsi 500 at Fontana trading places. The Degree V12 300 took the place of the Camping World RV Service 300 on NASCAR's Labor Day weekend race schedule and serves as an accompanying race to the AdvoCare 500.

In 2015, the Xfinity race at Atlanta moved along with the Cup race (Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500) to the second weekend of the season and ran as a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon along with the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series. The race was also reduced to 250 miles in order to make the race a doubleheader on the same day.[4]

Jeff Gordon, Mike Skinner, Jamie McMurray, and Carl Edwards got their first series wins at Atlanta.

Past winners
Year Date No. Driver Team Manufacturer Race Distance Race Time Average Speed
(mph)
Laps Miles (km)
1992 March 14 1 Jeff Gordon Bill Davis Racing Ford 197 299.834 (482.536) 2:24:36 124.412
1993 November 13* 2 Ward Burton A.G. Dillard Motorsports Chevrolet 197 299.834 (482.536) 2:44:05 109.64
1994 March 12 7 Harry Gant Whitaker Racing Chevrolet 197 299.834 (482.536) 2:20:56 127.649
1995 March 11 74 Johnny Benson Jr. BACE Motorsports Chevrolet 197 299.834 (482.536) 2:03:45 145.767
1996 March 9 5 Terry Labonte Labonte Motorsports Chevrolet 197 299.834 (482.536) 2:08:15 139.656
1997* March 8 60 Mark Martin Roush Racing Ford 197 299.834 (482.536) 1:58:55 151.751
1998* November 7 60 Mark Martin Roush Racing Ford 195 300.3 (483.286) 2:10:23 138.193
1999 March 13 19 Mike Skinner Emerald Performance Group Chevrolet 195 300.3 (483.286) 2:33:46 117.178
2000 March 11* 60 Mark Martin Roush Racing Ford 203 312.62 (503.113) 2:27:47 126.924
2001 March 10 87 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet 203 312.62 (503.113) 2:10:18 143.954
2002 October 26 27 Jamie McMurray Brewco Motorsports Chevrolet 203 312.62 (503.113) 2:15:09 138.788
2003 October 25 7 Greg Biffle Evans Motorsports Chevrolet 203 312.62 (503.113) 2:08:17 146.217
2004 October 30 17 Matt Kenseth Reiser Enterprises Ford 208* 320.32 (515.505) 2:24:08 133.343
2005 March 19 60 Carl Edwards Roush Racing Ford 203 312.62 (503.113) 2:23:34 130.651
2006 March 18 21 Jeff Burton Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 195 300.3 (483.286) 2:20:47 127.984
2007 March 17 29 Jeff Burton Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 195 300.3 (483.286) 2:21:39 127.201
2008 March 8 17 Matt Kenseth Roush Fenway Racing Ford 198* 304.92 (490.721) 2:19:21 131.29
2009 September 5 33 Kevin Harvick Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet 195 300.3 (483.286) 2:04:04 145.228
2010 September 4 88 Jamie McMurray JR Motorsports Chevrolet 195 300.3 (483.286) 2:04:44 144.452
2011 September 3 60 Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Racing Ford 195 300.3 (483.286) 2:15:40 132.811
2012 September 1 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 195 300.3 (483.286) 2:32:51 117.88
2013 August 31 33 Kevin Harvick Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 195 300.3 (483.286) 2:08:01 140.747
2014 August 30 5 Kevin Harvick JR Motorsports Chevrolet 195 300.3 (483.286) 2:08:37 140.091
2015 February 28 88 Kevin Harvick JR Motorsports Chevrolet 163 251.02 (403.977) 1:40:32 149.813
2016 February 27 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 163 251.02 (403.977) 1:49:53 137.065
2017 March 4 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 163 251.02 (403.977) 1:57:16 128.435
2018 February 24 98 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing with
Biagi-DenBeste		 Ford 163 251.02 (403.977) 1:56:09 129.67
2019 February 23 20 Christopher Bell Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota* 163 251.02 (403.977) 1:48:00 139.456
2020 June 6* 16 A. J. Allmendinger Kaulig Racing Chevrolet 163 251.02 (403.977) 2:02:37 122.832
2020 March 20
  • 1993: Race postponed from March to November due to Southeastern Blizzard.
  • 1998: After reconfiguration of the track between the two 1997 Cup races, the track was remeasured to 1.54 miles and laps reduced to 195 laps as a result.
  • 2000: Race started during the day, but finished under the lights due to a rain delay of almost 6 hours on Lap 92.
  • 2004 and 2008: Race extended due to NASCAR overtime.
  • 2019: First win for the Toyota Supra. All other Xfinity wins for Toyota were with the Camry (2007–2018).
  • 2020: Race postponed from March 14 to June 6 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]

Multiple winners (drivers)
# Wins Driver Years Won
5 Kevin Harvick 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018
3 Mark Martin 1997, 1998, 2000
2 Jamie McMurray 2002, 2010
Matt Kenseth 2004, 2008
Carl Edwards 2005, 2011
Jeff Burton 2006, 2007
Kyle Busch 2016, 2017

Multiple winners (teams)
# Wins Team Years Won
7 Roush Fenway Racing 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2012
3 Richard Childress Racing 2006, 2007, 2013
JR Motorsports 2010, 2014, 2015
Joe Gibbs Racing 2016, 2017, 2019

Manufacturer wins
# Wins Make Years Won
16 Chevrolet 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2020
10 Ford 1992, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2018
3 Toyota 2016, 2017, 2019

References
  1. "EchoPark Automotive to sponsor NASCAR Xfinity race on March 14 at AMS". Atlanta Motor Speedway. March 6, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  2. "NASCAR leaves smoking days farther behind". ESPN. 2005-01-27. Archived from the original on 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2015-01-01.
  3. Horovitz, Bruce (2005-01-26). "Nicorette, NASCAR sign sponsorship deal". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2015-01-01.
  4. "NASCAR reveals 2015 schedules for national series". NASCAR. August 26, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  5. "NASCAR postpones Atlanta, Homestead races". ESPN. March 13, 2020. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
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